


Drabbles Collection - One Word Prompts

by Elbeeinthewild



Category: NCIS
Genre: Community: ncis_drabble, Drabble, Episode Related, Gen, Implied Slash, M/M, Slash-Non Graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-04 21:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11563680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elbeeinthewild/pseuds/Elbeeinthewild
Summary: Drabble-ish things inspired by one-word prompts. Chapters are Gen except four. Chapter four contains implied G/D slash. If that's not your thing, skip chapter four.





	1. Surfacing

**Author's Note:**

> I'll probably add more of these from time to time, so the collection will be an open-ended series.
> 
> If I've updated this, it usually means the muse doesn't want to talk to me about my WIPs right now. She wanted to do this odd little drabble stuff instead. Silly muse.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First in a series of unrelated drabbles based on one-word prompts. This one is 'surfacing'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to 'Requiem' if you squint.

He peered into the cold, black depths and waited. Two men appeared out of the gloom then surfaced; one gasping air, the other still and white. Was it like this before? No…helping hands were waiting this time. That was different. 

 

He watched them start CPR, wanting to help but intuitively knowing he couldn’t. He rubbed his sternum in sympathy as a still chest was pumped relentlessly. His head spun as alternately demanding and pleading words were spoken over the unmoving form; _breathe, dammit…stay with me_. Perspective shifted; vision blackened and hearing faded as the form suddenly arced and coughed. 

 

Awareness flooded back, bringing pain and cold. The voice now came from above his prone body. Once demanding and pleading, now warm with relief and affection. “Welcome back, Tony.”


	2. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He didn't used to mind blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teensy missing scene for SWAK.

He didn’t used to mind blue. Shannon had loved him in it; said it brought out the color of his eyes. _This_ blue was altogether different. It didn’t evoke memories of warm days, clear skies, and happier times. It certainly wasn’t the piercing shade that gazed back at him from mirrors. 

 

Blue was tainted now. The blue of the lights signified someone he cared about balanced on a knife’s edge between recovery or slipping away, and leaning the wrong direction. Now blue was ominous and cold; a harbinger of death. He _hated_ it. Gibbs leaned down, desperate to tilt the balance back the other way. 

 

He despaired for a moment when there was no response to his first attempt to push back against the blue. He delivered a light smack to the top of Tony’s head. When green eyes snapped open he leaned closer and spoke again. The soft, intense voice radiated confidence. _“_ I said... _you will not die.”_


	3. Implacable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Projecting my angsty thoughts on Gibbs and Tony in S13.

Tony decided he’d had enough. Enough of being inexplicably benched and being demeaned. Gibbs was cold, distant, and perpetually angry but only with _him_ ; no one else. It had gone like this for months. Gibbs refused to explain, to allow Tony to understand what he’d done. And he’d tried to _so_ many times.

He stopped denying the distance that had grown between them was now a chasm that couldn't be bridged. He was tired…so tired of trying. Gibbs was…implacable. He didn't understand it, couldn’t change it, and it wasn't in him to keep pretending all of it didn’t cut deeply.

The only choice left to him now was leaving, and he resolved to do exactly that. Until he’d decided where to go next, when it came to Gibbs he’d be implacable too.


	4. Improbable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gibbs ponders the improbable. Implied Gibbs/Tony slash and unapologetically sappy. So there.

Gibbs leaned against the doorframe, feeling a sense of wonder as he realized watching Tony sleep…seeing him in unguarded moments, had become a favorite pastime.

Their unlikely partnership had recently morphed into something far more meaningful; improbable in so many ways. Always had been, he considered, as he slipped into bed without waking his lover. Force of nature that he was, Tony would likely argue that they were _inevitable_. Maybe so. He felt an improbable, inevitable rush of affection as Tony shifted closer, sensing his warmth; his presence, and being drawn to it even in sleep.

Improbable yes; but thankfully not impossible. Tony’s arm moved across his belly, hand curling around his hip, as if to keep him close. The heat of Tony’s body penetrated, warming him body and soul. Even more improbably, he realized that being with him just like this, was exactly where he wanted to be.


	5. Anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He'd give anything...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers - a glimpse into a scene from "Bury Your Dead".

Gibbs’ stomach turns as Abby unpacks evidence from the scene. She’s rambling and he can barely stand it. He’d do anything for her so he listens, though it’s like a knife twisting in his belly. The litany tells him she’s holding onto hope where there is none.

Her words ring with denial but Abby’s manic movements betray her devastation. He’d give anything if she weren’t the one examining these charred pieces of evidence.

She freezes, looking down as the reality of the evidence in front of her outweighs hope.

“Tell me it’s not him, Gibbs.”

Abby whirls to face him, her eyes shining with tears she refuses to let fall. She launches herself into his arms pleading again, “ _Tell me it’s not him_.”

He’d give anything to tell her that, but it’s a lie. Tony is dead.

He chokes down his despair and manages a hoarse whisper. 

“I wish I could, Abby.”


	6. Certainty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for ‘Chained’. Tiny extended scene.

* * *

Some things he knew with certainty. Gibbs knew he was worried about Tony and too much of a bastard to admit it to Kate. He knew it was Tony who’d been calling then hanging up, and he’d been too damn slow to catch on. 

He knew as soon as he saw the blood-streaked car windows, they were too late to alter the outcome. He looked through the gory back window, and knew Jeffrey White was dead. 

Turning to the slumped, still figure in the driver's seat, Gibbs realized Tony might be dead too. He didn’t _want_ that certainty; one that would be undeniable once he opened the door, but he _needed_ it one way or the other.

Gibbs’ chest tightened painfully when Tony didn’t react to the door opening. Then…relief as Tony’s head turned slowly and he gazed up at him from dark, haunted eyes.

“I really liked him.”

Gibbs knew with certainty his agent would carry scars from this case; the kind that no one would ever see.


	7. Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years after leaving NCIS, Tony receives an unexpected letter.

Tony sorted his mail, freezing as he recognized the handwriting on the last envelope in the stack. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d made a life beyond NCIS _and_ the letter-writer.

After their angry and contentious parting of ways, a letter two years later wasn’t going to cut it. He also wasn’t willing to let this first, unexpected effort at contact give him a false sense of hope that the sender wanted to make amends.

Besides, anything important enough to be said to him _now_ could damn well be said in person. In spite of his resolve, regret washed over him as he picked up the letter. 

Tony pulled a pen from the desk drawer, tapping it against his lips in a moment of contemplation. Knowing his own handwriting would be equally recognizable as would his message, he wrote “Return to Sender” next to Gibbs’ neat, precise print and tossed the letter in with the outgoing mail.


End file.
